1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computing data centers. More specifically, modular data centers with modular components suitable for use with rack or shelf mount computing systems, for example, are disclosed.
2. Description of Related Art
Many of today's more complex computing systems such as computer server systems are often rack-mounted systems in which a number of removable electronics modules, such as electronics trays, are positioned and stacked relative to each other in a shelf-like manner within a frame or rack. Rack-mounted systems allow the arrangement of several of the electronics modules in a vertical orientation for efficient use of space. Each electronics module can be slid into and out of the rack-mounting system.
Each electronics module may correspond to a different server or each electronics module may hold one or more components of a server. Examples of electronics modules include modules for processing, storage such as random access memory (RAM), network interfaces and controllers, disk drives such as floppy disk drives, hard drives, compact disk (CD) drives, and digital video disk (DVD) drives, parallel and serial ports, small computer systems interface (SCSI) bus controllers, video controllers, power supplies, and so forth.
A server farm in today's computing environment may be housed in a data center such as a colocation and may include hundreds of racks that hold various types of computer-related modules. When the server racks are installed in the colocation site, a number of interrelated processes are planned out and executed, generally in a relatively short period of time. Examples of such processes include physical layout of the server racks, configuration and wiring of electrical power connections to the server racks, layout of flow-control elements in the cooling system of the data center space, and/or the installation of Internet connectivity wiring and networking systems. Typically, these processes are completed on-site at the colocation site by costly skilled tradesmen. In addition, because installation at each site is customized to take into account site-specific constraints, i.e., site to site variations in data centers, installation difficulties arise and economies of scale cannot be fully exploited on installations. Furthermore, because of the site-specific constraints, the processes are different for each site such that each site provides new opportunities for costly design and/or installation errors. Currently, the time from determining the need to starting to serve production traffic can be approximately 6 to 9 months.
To further increase the costs, many colocations are relatively expensive to use or lease and typically are not setup for convenient operations or for easy deployment of large scale server racks, for example. In large scale deployments, many potential opportunities to maximize power, cooling, ventilation, lighting, and space utilization, are not easily exploited at colocation sites. Colocations also often have issues associated with power, cooling, and/or personnel. Moreover, the available colocation sites may be limited.
As an example, a large scale deployment of a server farm such as a mega data center, may involve 300,000 computers, with a service life of approximately four years per machine. In such a large scale server farm, an average of over 1,400 computers per week are de-racked and racked just to keep pace with end-of-service machines. At a rack density of 40 trays per rack and 1 computer per tray, approximately 36 racks are replaced each week.